American web-surfers flock to Canadian immigration site...

[altivo]

The Canadian Ministry of Immigration announced that the number of daily visitors to its immigration web site went up more than 500% on Wednesday, November 3.

( Reuters article here )

I'll just have to write a letter to our governor here in Illinois. He's already trying to get official permission to import prescription drugs from Canada. Maybe if Illinois and Wisconsin just quietly secede and become Canadian provinces, that would kill two birds with one stone?

Comments

[1-broken-toy.livejournal.com]

I think about moving to Canada sometimes, but it has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with people in Canada that I know.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, in spite of all the disparaging remarks made about it by the Bush camp in the last few days, it's a fine American tradition.

People are yearning for religious freedom, including freedom from religious oppression. They (myself included) see the current trend in US politics as a confirmed movement toward theocracy and state endorsement of a single religious view, to be encoded in law and, yes, even written into the Constitution.

Just as folks back in the 17th century fled Europe to escape religious persecution, we will begin to see people leaving the US for the same reason if this trend continues.

At my own age, my friends are well established. Most of them own homes, have been in their jobs for years, have built up significant balances with social security (which this administration also threatens to take away and give to the corporate pirates but that's a separate issue) so they are not idle complainers. Nor are they slackers or non-contributors to society. I am talking about research scientists, people with patents to their credit, college teachers, and authors. Some of them have already travelled to Canada so they could be legally married. (Or, in one case, to Vermont.) Yet they are talking seriously about this. If the current trend continues, at least some of them will certainly leave in order to avoid persecution.

As always, the intolerance and short-sightedness of the voters lacks any sense of what they are really asking for. And just as the brightest people of Germany fled the nation while they could to escape the pogroms to come, the same will happen here unless the religious right backs down soon.

[animist.livejournal.com]

Besides the official site, there is this, unofficial site:

MarryAnAmerican - No good American will be left behind!

I have already given up Internet Dating though... such a source of heartbreak! (I used to look online to find someone to move in with me.) I wish these people the best.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I saw that. :)

But I already have a partner. According to the preliminary tally on the official immigration site, we would have a good chance of being accepted as landed immigrants by the Canadians, despite our age. I'm not thinking seriously of this, at least not yet, but only because I still hope my own predictions about what is happening in the US are wrong.

If I'm right, though, it will be necessary to escape before restrictions on travel and closed borders are instituted to keep the valuable workers and skilled minds from leaving the country. They will give some other reason of course, like "national security" and the need to keep "our people" safe, but that will be what it's actually about. :\

[animist.livejournal.com]

I'm not planing on leaving - yet. But I am going to look for my Passport this weekend, and get it renewed.

[calydor.livejournal.com]

If the government wants skilled minds inside the US borders, why aren't they pooling more money into education? Nope, just stand up and flag a MENSA membership card, and you'll be deported for free. ;)

I hope I'm wrong about that ...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It has already come out that this administration screens scientists to make sure they are of the correct political mindset before offering them postings. If they believe global warming is real, or favor stem cell research, they are rejected. "Science" in the Bush administration is always "Don't tell me what I don't want to hear."

The US still needs skilled people. But the administration doesn't want people who think. Those aren't necessarily the same thing.

As for MENSA cards, well, I doubt ol' G.W. knows what they are. In fact, I'm not even sure I ever had one myself, though I do have the infamous yellow stick pin. Haven't ever actually worn it. I know where it is, though, along with my Phi Beta Kappa key and Phi Kappa Phi lapel pin.